Did anyone ask for unpaid leave after their 52 weeks maternity leave?

[birdofthenorth]

Only 5.5 weeks pg so very premature to be thinking about my mat leave, but if all goes well DC will be due in June, therefore mat leave will expire in June the following year. However DH works term-time only and will be off the following end of July and August. It would be a bit of a shame for me to go back just as he starts school holidays -it would be lovely if we could both enjoy the summer together with DC. Assuming we could save enough I'd therefore like to be off work until the September after I start... do you think my work would let me have two months extra unpaid leave? They are very flexible, big charitable employer, but I realise they'd be under no obligation to. Has anyone asked their employer this?

Thanks

Why not use a month of paid annual leave? You'll have loads stored up. Also if DC due in June you will prob want to start your mat leave in May - working up to the due date is very hard although some do it. Congrats on your pg.

I had an extra 3 months unpaid leave before going back after ds3, he is a june birthday so it allowed me to get ds1 into YR ok before starting back at the end of Sept.
I didn't reach that decision until I was coming to the end of my 52 weeks and told my employers about the Easter time, they weren't very impressed as they had planned for me in terms of up coming projects and resource but it was the right thing for us as a family (and incidently they got over it, I think they just like to know an exact date for year planning, I had told them 52 weeks in first instance)
More notice for your employer to plan is good but find out what your minimum obligation is too and how to apply for it - I found it hard to get that information from work once I was off (no access to intra net!) worth having on file for when you do want to let them know

hth

You'll have a year's worth of annual leave (5-6 weeks?) saved up by then, and you can use some of the annual leave for the new year. With that, you should be able to stretch it by a few months.

our annual leave was paid over the year so not accrued, ie I started back with new starters annual leave so pro rata for the remaining portion of the year, I think when I went back at the end of September I had 7 days or so left to take until new holiday year in Jan.
Check your company policy

Agree with PPs that you will have A/L to take.

I took additional unpaid leave after 52 weeks M/L. I had to apply officially as there is provision in law for parents of young children to take unpaid leave - google, am sure the detail is there somewhere (I can't remember now sorry). Your employer has to award it to you, but not necessarily when you ask for it, and i is limited to x weeks per year up to a certain total. Sorry am so vague!

Agree with PP in regards to AL.

I'm currently on ML and this ends at the end of November. However, as I have a full years holiday entitlement to take, I have pegged this onto the end of my ML so will not actually return to work until first week in January.

I agreed this prior to me starting my ML so it maybe worthwhile speaking to your HR dept about your options.

My employer actually suggests that you can tag on parental leave.

It's explained very clearly here.

I did too. Then I added a career break on.

When I went on mat leave I told my company that I wanted to tag on three months parental leave to the end of my maternity leave. I guess it depends on the company but I had no problem and I think that it makes it easier for them as they can arrange someone to cover the leave in one go, rather than trying to cover a three month stint later down the road.